In the News

May 3, 2013 — Our video roundup includes a unique assortment of Web videos hand-picked by our editors. In this edition, we feature a discussion about rape culture in the U.S. and efforts to address sexual assaults on college campuses, as well as the murder trial of abortion provider Kermit Gosnell.

MSNBC's Melissa Harris-Perry and a panel of guests discuss rape culture and a string of recent news stories "about young women and the indignities they face following sexual assault," as well as efforts by activists to address sexual assaults on college campuses. Guests include Fatima Goss Graves of the National Women's Law Center; Dave Zarin, sports editor at The Nation; Chloe Angyal, editor of Feministing; and Annie Clark of Know Your IX, which is working to educate college students about Title IX's protections against discrimination in education and institutions' responsibility to respond to sexual assault complaints. Part two of the conversation and a blog post by Clark also are available online (Harris-Perry, "Melissa Harris-Perry," MSNBC, 4/27).

Philadelphia physician Kermit Gosnell -- on trial for the murder of a woman and several infants allegedly born alive after abortion procedures -- preyed "on poor women who desperately needed safe and clean medical services but were unable to get [them] because of the restrictions that drove credible and reputable doctors out of business," NARAL Pro-Choice America President Ilyse Hogue tells MSNBC's Thomas Roberts. "As the anti-choicers try and restrict more and more doctors out of business, they are the ones that are keeping the Kermit Gosnells operating. ... They drove poor, desperate women into the clutches of this monster who broke the law from top to bottom," she says(Roberts, MSNBC, 4/29).

Salon's Irin Carmon and NARAL's Ilyse Hogue respond to conservatives' claims that the Gosnell case justifies increased regulations on abortion providers. The real problem is barriers to affordable, safe and early abortion care, especially for poor women like those who sought help at Gosnell's clinic, they tell MSNBC's Al Sharpton. "The tragedy is that across the board whether we're talking about abortion care or maternal mortality, there are unforgivable racial disparities in terms of the level of care that women get," Carmon says (Sharpton, "Politics Nation," MSNBC, 4/29).

Video Round Up

An Interview with Justice Ginsburg on the State of Abortion Access

In a rare interview, Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg tells MSNBC's Irin Carmon it is a "crying shame" that state abortion restrictions are making the procedure increasingly "[i]naccessible" to many low-income women. Watch the video

Datapoints

A Look at Abortion Coverage in the ACA's Marketplace Plans, Repro Health Report Card, More

This week's charts depict why abortion coverage is unavailable in many states' ACA marketplace plans for 2015. We also feature a national reproductive health report card and an interactive look at abortion restrictions in Missouri. Read more

At A Glance

"[Roe v. Wade] protects a woman's freedom to make her own choices about her body and her health, and reaffirms a fundamental American value: that government should not intrude in our most private and personal family matters."

— President Obama, commemorating the 42nd anniversary of Roe v. Wade. Read more